John P. (“Sean”) Coffey was sworn in as the 24th General Counsel of the Department of the Navy (DON) shortly after his confirmation by the U.S. Senate in February 2022. As the DON’s Chief Legal Officer, Mr. Coffey leads the Office of the General Counsel (OGC), comprised of more than 1,100 attorneys and professional support staff who provide legal advice to the Secretary of the Navy, the Under Secretary of the Navy, the Assistant Secretaries of the Navy, their staffs, and the multiple components of the Department, including the Navy and the Marine Corps.

In addition to managing OGC’s traditional legal services to its many DON clients, Mr. Coffey has launched several initiatives intended to advance DON financial, readiness, and personnel interests.  For example, the Taxpayer Advocacy Project (TAP) seeks to leverage legal authorities and strategies to ensure that the DON is obtaining the maximum return on taxpayer investments from contractual counterparties.  The Promoting Individual Accountability (PINACL) project directs the DON’s Suspension and Debarment Officers to identify and if appropriate sanction individuals who cause DON vendors to engage in fraud or grossly poor performance.  Mr. Coffey has worked closely with the Judge Advocate General of the Navy and Staff Judge Advocate to the Commandant of the Marine Corps in implementing historic changes to the military justice system intended to combat sexual misconduct in the DON, including the establishment of each Services’ Office of Special Trial Counsel.  Mr. Coffey initiated the in-depth review of the World War Two-era “Port Chicago” courts-martial, which culminated with Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro setting aside the convictions and sentences of 256 African-American Sailors wrongfully convicted in those1944 trials.

A native of New York City, Mr. Coffey is the oldest of seven children born to Irish immigrants. He is an honors graduate of the United States Naval Academy and Georgetown University Law Center. After graduating from Annapolis, Mr. Coffey completed Naval Flight Officer training and served eight years on active duty, including assignments as a P-3C Orion mission commander hunting Soviet submarines during the Cold War, a junior officer intern to the Strategy Division in the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the special military assistant (personal aide) to Vice President George H.W. Bush. Mr. Coffey attended Georgetown Law’s evening program while assigned to the Pentagon and White House. After graduating from Georgetown Law, Mr. Coffey transitioned to the Navy Reserve and returned to New York, where he practiced law for over thirty-five years, including several years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York.  For his role as co-lead counsel in the historic WorldCom securities litigation, Mr. Coffey was named one of the Nation’s top ten trial lawyers in 2005 by The National Law Journal and dubbed “Wall Street’s New Nemesis” by Bloomberg Markets.

After leaving active duty, Mr. Coffey continued to serve in the Navy Reserve for eighteen years. Among other things, he flew anti-submarine missions in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, counter-narcotics missions in the Caribbean, and armed missions in support of the blockade of the former Yugoslavia. Mr. Coffey was selected to serve as commanding officer both of a reserve P-3C squadron (VP-92) and the reserve component of the ENTERPRISE carrier battle group staff (CCDG-12), and served as a staff officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Reserve Affairs). Mr. Coffey retired at the rank of Captain in 2004.

Prior to returning to public service, Mr. Coffey served as the President of the Federal Bar Foundation and on the boards of various non-profit organizations, including Common Cause New York, Georgetown Law’s Board of Visitors, Greenhope Services for Women, and the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center.  He has also served as an adjunct professor at Fordham Law (criminal procedure seminar) and Georgetown Law (trial practice).

Mr. Coffey has been married for over thirty-five years to Anne Churchill, an actress whose credits include “This is Spinal Tap”. They have three grown children.

Last Updated: 15 October 2024